ASI Offers Sheep Priorities to APHIS

ASI Offers Sheep Priorities to APHIS

Ralph Loos
Sheep Industry News Editor

WASHINGTON – Chairs of the ASI Predator Committee and Animal Health Committee said they appreciated last fall’s meeting with USDA to relay the priorities of the sheep industry.

Those priorities – completing scrapie eradication in the U.S. and securing an adequately funded livestock protection program – were provided to APHIS by animal health committee co-chair Cindy Wolf, DVM (Minn.), and predator management committee co-chairs John Baucus (Mont.) and Steve Clements (S.D.).

Peter Orwick, executive director of ASI, re-iterated the sheep industry’s top priorities in a letter to APHIS on Jan. 15.

“We want to again emphasize that the sheep industry’s top two priorities are complete eradication of scrapie from the United States expeditiously and an effective, cooperatively, and appropriately funded livestock protection program, and continue to invest in operations and methods research,” Orwick’s letter stated.

Following the October meeting in Washington, APHIS administrator Kevin Shea and deputy administrator John Clifford sent a letter to ASI. According to their letter, APHIS is “in the process of revising its agency-wide strategic plan and the information shared by industry leaders will help to ensure that its goals better align with sheep and goat priorities. “

As a result of the meeting, APHIS will begin addressing some of the priority issues outlined by the industry, APHIS stated.

A follow-up meeting is expected this fall.